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The Right Conditions for Cheating

By now many of you have heard about the recent reports of rampant teacher cheating and unethical practices in the Atlanta public school system. What kind of world are we living in when the adults responsible for shaping the minds of our future leaders resort to cheating of this magnitude? Since the reports surfaced, I have been trying to understand why or how this could happen. Now, I’m not saying that it is implausible for anyone to cheat, after all, it is an element of human nature to cheat. I also realize that cheating takes place every day in different forms, but isn’t there a line somewhere? Actually, there isn’t.

You better believe that this is not the first time the teachers in Atlanta, or teachers all over America for that matter, have cheated. I believe this cheating is a symptom of a more substantial problem. So much of our educational system encourages this kind of behavior. Since the advent of the era of high stakes testing, many school systems have felt the pressure to meet standards with limited or no additional resources including highly qualified teachers. I have personally seen teachers succumb to the pressure to get students to pass the test that they simply “teach the test” in an effort to get higher scores. This only creates an even bigger problem for the school system in subsequent years which leads to more pressure to cheat. Some public school systems fall in line with similar behavior by constantly manipulating data to satisfy the ever-growing political pressures to meet or exceed standards (often self-imposed standards). Together, these behaviors seem to suggest that the accountability system, which includes the high stakes testing, data reporting, and a whole host of other political constraints, is what drives public education today and produces the right conditions for cheating on all levels.

Well, that is what I think about this scandal, but I would like to know what you think about the sad state of affairs in the Atlanta Public School System.